British industry is on a roll, on a rolling mill to be precise. Not only are the mills at British Steel's vast steel works in Scunthorpe running at nearly full capacity again but they are making money.

Good money too – a profit of £47m in its first year of independence compared to a loss of £79m the year before.

This is a tremendous achievement by British Steel, which took over Tata Steel's loss-making long products division at Scunthorpe for a £1 only a year ago.

British Steel's vast steel works in Scunthorpe running at nearly full capacity again but they are making money

It's the steel maker's best performance for a decade and the 4,400 workers, who agreed to a small salary sacrifice as part of the rescue plan, are now being paid full whack.

That's not all. British Steel has taken on another 500 workers over the last year and is investing £40m of new capital over the next year. It has also bought the share owned by Tata in the Redcar Bulk Terminal, the Teesside port storage facility owned by SSI prior to its collapse.

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This terminal is hugely important as a gateway into the North East. The move will secure all the jobs, and hopefully there will be more jobs to come.

What's more thrilling is that British Steel's owners, Greybull Capital, the private family office owned by brothers Marc and Nathaniel Meyohas, are handing 5 per cent of the company to staff. The scheme was designed by KPMG, and is a first for the steel industry.

We need more such schemes. The more workers have skin in the game, the better for everybody. British Steel's bosses were able to achieve this turnaround so swiftly because of the way workers, and the steel union, Community, were prepared to work together with management.

Which is why it was great to hear Luxembourgian chairman, Roland Junck, praising his staff to the skies for being 'remarkable people who have embraced, engineered and led change'.

It's interesting to note British Steel's great achievement drew no praise from any of Labour's leaders yesterday

His tribute is exactly what we need more of from industry leaders, particularly as the Brexit talks take shape.

It's interesting to note that British Steel's great achievement drew no praise from any of Labour's leaders yesterday. Perhaps they can't bear the idea that industrial democracy can work when all sides pull together?

Yet building stronger relations between industry and workers would reduce many deep misunderstandings the public holds towards business, as this rather puerile election campaign has vividly shown.

'It's ironic that it took Tata Steel's pulling out of Scunthorpe to lead to a renaissance of the British steel industry, and such forward thinking from a resurrected British Steel.'

Dulux Dynamite

The decision by the Pittsburgh-based coatings giant PPG to walk away from its £22.5bn bid for rival Dutch firm Akzo Nobel – owners of Britain's famous Dulux paint brand – is the right one.

Akzo's bosses put up a brilliant fight to make PPG back down. But the British press should take a bow too. The media turned the heat on PPG and their aggressive activist friends at Elliott Advisors over fears that some of the 3,300 Dulux jobs would be lost if the bid went through. The UK attack dogs helped set the mood of the bid.

Akzo has been a great owner of Dulux, nurturing the old ICI's laboratories and stepping up with new investment.

Stepping up: Akzo has been a great owner of Dulux and focusing on new investment

It has promised an extra dividend and spinning off parts of the business as a thank-you to investors sticking by them.

Time to spin off Dulux?

Why the booing?

Too much good news? Here's some more. The UK's manufacturing sector held up strongly in May, far better than forecasts.

Markit's Purchasing Managers Index was at 56.7, only a smidgen below April's 57.3, which was the highest for three years.

Conditions have improved for ten successive months, and jobs grew at the fastest rate since June 2014. Domestic demand is driving growth, with manufacturing production and new orders across the board.

So what's with the booing when Amber Rudd – or any other politician for that matter – claims that jobs are at their highest ever and the outlook is bright? It's going to get tougher, we know that.